


3AM

by SolStudio



Series: Nowhere to Run [4]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Demon Shane Madej, Developing Friendships, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Miscommunication, Strained Friendships, but not really, these boys really need to learn how to communicate at somepoint, they finally start to communicate here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21655690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolStudio/pseuds/SolStudio
Summary: Ryan is excited to take his demonic best friend ghost hunting with him for the first time. He’s missed filming Unsolved for his fans over the past few months, and he’s finally ready to get back into things.Meanwhile, Shane’s realizing that he has to tell Ryan the truth, and he has to do it soon, if he wants there to be any chance whatsoever to prevent his secret from ruining their friendship.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara & Shane Madej
Series: Nowhere to Run [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1483526
Comments: 30
Kudos: 168





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In which Ryan still hasn't figured out Shane isn't a demon despite Shane being terrible at lying. Enjoy!

Ryan watched as Shane fiddled with the camera he’d been handed less than 5 minutes prior. It had been handed over reluctantly, with strict instructions to “not break it, okay? I can’t afford to buy another.” Although, for a demon, he seemed to have a pretty decent grasp on human technology.

Ryan shifted awkwardly on the balls of his feet. He’d never had a camera man before. For the couple years he’d been doing YouTube, it had just been him running around with a camera, filming and editing everything by himself. Handing off some of those responsibilities to someone else was almost uncomfortable. He was trying to be confident in Shane’s filming capability, but the fiddling was making him worried this was a mistake.

At least there was one benefit to this whole scenario, Ryan was significantly less anxious than he normally was when getting ready to start filming. Tonight he was going to be investigating one of the freshman dorms on campus. Apparently, there was a hallway in one of the dorms that had been shut down and locked a few years back, and it had been experiencing some strange occurrences ever since. 

While students couldn’t get into the hallway, there was a window in the door that allowed passersby to see inside. He’d heard from a friend that the hallway was used for storage now, and looking inside, there were stacks of chairs piled high within. According to that friend, people would bring flashlights to shine in the window so they could look around. It seemed every time, despite no one having access to that wing of the dorm, the chairs would appear to have moved around on their own, and some people swore they saw the lights flicker on randomly for a fraction of a second.

Ryan had been able to get permission to investigate the dorm for the night, and he’d be the very first student to go inside in years. He’d been given the janitor’s key, and he’d have to return it in the morning, but for the night, the hallway was all his to explore.

Shane had been less than impressed by the whole story. For a demon, he was surprisingly skeptical. In spite of his skepticism towards the haunted dorm, he’d offered to tag along and help Ryan film. Ryan had a sneaking suspicion that the offer might have been a result of his complaining at their weekly movie nights. It was no secret that Ryan had been neglecting his YouTube account as of late, and he knew Shane was smart enough to deduce why. Having proof of the supernatural made facing it seem so much worse, and he’d been postponing his return for a while.

Normally, he’d be out of his mind with worry at the thought of facing possibly malevolent ghosts all alone, but this time he wouldn’t be alone. He’d be with Shane. Shane who was a powerful demon, and despite his demonic nature, was quickly becoming Ryan’s best friend… not that he’d told Shane that. 

“You ready?” Shane held up the camera and aimed it at Ryan. “Time to round up some ghouls!” 

Ryan gave a surprised snort of laughter, nerves soothed by Shane’s nonchalance. “Yeah man. Ready as I’ll ever be. I’ve put this off long enough. The people demand ghoul content!”

Turning the key in the lock, the deadbolt unlocked with a click, and Ryan threw open the door. He wasn’t sure where exactly the lightswitch was, but he had a sneaking suspicion that the lights wouldn’t work properly anyways so he wasn’t too concerned. Plus, the dark always seemed to attract the supernatural. Speaking of...

“Hey Shane?”

“Hmm?” Shane hummed his acknowledgement.

Ryan took a step in the corridor, avoiding looking at his companion. “Before you start filming, could I ask you something?” A pause. “About you being a demon?”

There was a pause as Shane didn’t immediately respond. Ryan forced himself to turn back towards Shane. Curiously, Shane appeared visibly disquieted by Ryan’s question as he awkwardly lowered the camera. 

“Uh.. yeah. Sure, man. What’s up?” It was Shane who refused to make eye-contact now.

“I was just wondering, are all demons and spirits attracted to the dark, or something? You never hear of hauntings in the daylight.”

He wasn’t sure if he imagined or not the look of relief that spread across Shane’s face.

“I’ve uh, never been much of a haunting kind of guy so I’m not the greatest example. I prefer the day time, personally.”

Ryan couldn’t stop the grin from breaking out on his face. “I swear, is there any demonic trope you actually do fall into? Although- ” Ryan brought a hand to his chin thoughtfully. “We did meet for the first time in the middle of the night. Actually though, to be fair, I was summoning you so I guess that’s more on me than on any predisposition you may have to the dark.”

Shane just shrugged, seemingly making an attempt to brush off the conversation. Well, Ryan could take a hint. He dropped the subject and resumed walking inside. 

The place certainly was creepy, Ryan would give all the rumors that much. Who wouldn’t find an abandoned wing of a dormitory unsettling? He threw a glance over his shoulder where Shane had the camera pointed at him. Noticing Ryan was watching, Shane threw him a thumbs up.

_Okay, other than Shane, that is._

The main hallway was where all the reported sightings of paranormal activity had been, but no one had seen the rest of the wing in years so he’d have to check the whole place out. 

Once he made it to the center of the hallway, near the stacked chairs, he stopped and turned around. 

“Okay let’s get the opening shot here. I’ll introduce the place, give a little backstory, and then we’ll move on to the actual investigation.”

Shane nodded in agreement. “Sounds good to me.”

Ryan recited all he knew about the dorm’s history from before it had been shut down and the paranormal activity that had been occurring since to the camera. Once finished, he pulled his phone out of his hoodie pocket, placing it on the floor and starting a timelapse. He’d love to record all night, but he didn’t have the space on his phone; he had to settle for the timelapse. Hopefully, he’d be able to afford a static cam soon, and then this wouldn’t be an issue anymore. 

“So like I was saying earlier,” Ryan addressed both the camera and Shane. “This entire section of the dormitory has been used for storage the past couple years. No students are allowed inside, but it is possible to see inside through the door window. It’s these chairs that are said to move around each time you look.”

He dragged one of the chairs to the center of the hallway and pointed at it dramatically. “We’ll be back to check on you.” 

* * *

“So… you feeling anything strange in here?” 

Shane peeked out from behind the camera to raise an eyebrow inquisitively. He blinked once, unsure as to whether he should answer while he was filming.

“You can talk, man. I don’t mind you being in the video. I think my subscribers would like you, to be honest.” 

Shane shook his head skeptically. “You don’t know that. Your channel has been a one man show for over a year. It might be jarring to suddenly have the new camera man injecting his opinion into everything.”

“I’m sure they’ll like you.”

“How do you know?”

_Because_ I _like you_ . Ryan chose not to voice that thought out loud. _So he might have started thinking of Shane as his friend. That didn’t mean Shane thought the same about him as well. He was just the human who summoned him, after all._

“Also, I can just edit out anything you say that might be… uh… incriminating?” Ryan winced. He probably could have said that in a less insulting way. “Anyways- do you sense anything in here? Like, something supernatural?”

Shane, catching onto the meaning behind Ryan’s words, smirked in amusement. “Are you asking if there’s any ghosties or ghouls around?”

Ryan threw him an unimpressed look as Shane snickered, amused with himself. “Nope. Sorry, Ry-guy. Nothing but dust and asbestos as far as I can see.”

“Damn.” Ryan’s shoulders deflated. Whether in relief or disappointment, Shane wasn’t quite sure. He hurried to come up with something more encouraging to say.

“Well, in this room, at least. Who knows what’s hiding in the rest of the rooms!” 

Ryan brightened. “You’re right! Okay let’s still scan the room for the sake of the video, and then go through the rest. We’ll end the investigation by returning to the main hallway and trying out the spirit box.” He pulled the aforementioned device from his pocket, waving it in front of him.

“The what now?” 

“Spirit box. It’s a device that swaps through radio frequencies at a high rate so that ghosts can manipulate it to create words and speak to us.”

“So it’s pseudo-science.” Shane said wryly.

“You didn’t even know what it was! How can you be so sure it doesn’t work if you’ve never tried it?” 

“Okay, you got me.” Shane gestured to the box with his free hand. “Show me how it works then.”

“Like this.” Ryan flicked on the box in demonstration, it’s loud static immediately filling the space. He rushed to turn down the volume.

“JESUS-” Shane threw his hands over his ears. “ _That_ is the single most annoying sound I’ve ever heard.”

“Really?” Ryan flipped the power switch on the box back to the off position.

Realizing he’d dragged the mood back down again, Shane scrambled to recover. “Maybe it’s less annoying to lingering ghosts? Y’know, since they’re not as present on the mortal plane as I am, or something?”

Ryan grinned. “No harm in trying, right?” He shoved the spirit box back into his pocket.

“Right. We’ll try using your little radio later.”

Ryan wheezed. “Shut up, Shane.” 

* * *

They’d finally finished up shooting in each room and had just moved back to the hallway as Shane felt the first yawn start to build within him. It had been important to Ryan that they do the investigation in the middle of the night, much to Shane’s chagrin. He had assignments to complete and sleep that he would like to be indulging in. Instead, he was awake at 3 a.m. filming a ghost hunting video for his friend’s YouTube channel. His friend who just so happened to think he was also one of the creatures that went bump in the night.

Ryan seemed to be having a good time, at least. Shane wasn’t sure if anyone else would ever have been able to talk him into ghost hunting. The Shane of a few months ago would have laughed in your face if you even suggested he’d be entertaining the thought that ghosts may be real for one of his friends. 

Now, as Ryan walked around with the spirit box blaring, even though Shane could feel his tiny apartment bedroom calling him, he still continued to follow the other man around. “Are you going to just leave that thing on or are you going to try to communicate with them at some point?”

Shane laughed as Ryan flipped off him and the camera, heading over to pick up his cell phone that had been recording and quickly scrubbing through to check that the chair had remained stationary throughout their filming.

“Looks like the chair didn’t move. Okay then.” He turned up the volume on the spirit box slightly. “Hello spirits, my name is Ryan-”

“-And I’m Shane!-” 

“-And this device I’m holding should help you to communicate with us. Can you repeat either of our names back to us?”

For a few moments, the two stood silently, the only sound in the room being the static blasting from the spirit box. It was only broken when Shane couldn’t stand the sound any longer.

“Riveting.” Shane’s snark level had a direct correlation to how tired he was. 

Ryan couldn’t stop the burst of laughter at Shane’s words. “Ghost hunting isn’t always fun, man. If it was easy, we’d have proven ghosts were real decades ago. I’m dedicated. I swear, I’ll be the first to find concrete evidence that even the most skeptical can’t deny.”

“I mean, what do you think-” Shane was cut off by the spirit box making a series of loud distorted sounds and Ryan shushing him violently.

“What?” Shane whisper-yelled.

“Didn’t you hear that? It sounded like ‘get out now!’”

“It did not sound like-”

A loud crash interrupted and drew their attention as one of the stacks of chairs toppled over.

Both men jumped, startled. “Shit! I think I saw something move over there, man!” Ryan pointed to the pile of fallen chairs.

“It’s okay. I’m sure we probably disturbed them earlier and gave them a nudge in the right direction. Gravity does as gravity pleases.”

“That wasn’t just gravity. Something knocked over those chairs; I’m sure of it!” Ryan started speed-walking towards the exit. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Hey man- wait up!” Shane pressed the button to stop recording and jogged to catch up with Ryan.

* * *

Once Ryan finished locking up, he re-pocketed the keys and made a grabbing motion towards Shane to hand over the camera. As soon as the camera was in his hands, he quickly rewound the footage, pausing it on a specific frame.

_There!_ In the right hand corner of the screen, a strange shadow, vaguely humanoid in shape, lurked near the stack of chairs that had fallen. 

“Holy shit! This is incredible!” Mindless of the camera in his hands, Ryan threw his arms around Shane, hugging him tightly. “This is the best evidence I’ve ever gotten!”

Shane froze, arms spread out awkwardly, unsure how to proceed. Slowly he began to move his arms to return the hug Ryan was giving him, but just as his hands were about to make contact with Ryan’s back, the man stepped backwards, out of his reach, to smile up at him. 

“Other than you, of course! But, you don’t really count since I can’t tell anyone about you after all. Plus,” Ryan thought to himself for a moment before nodding decisively. “You’ve kind of become my best friend, and that may sound strange- I mean, what kind of normal person is best friends with a demon? I shouldn’t even like you at all if I was a sane person. There must be something wrong with me-”

Shane cut him off him with a raised hand. “You’re my best friend too, Ryan.”

Ryan’s eyes met his. “Really?”

Shane smiled softly. “Really.” The two of them shared a smile for a few moments until Shane’s face began to morph into a grimace. Ryan would almost describe it as a ‘guilty’ expression. The way a puppy might look when you come home to find your favorite pair of shoes destroyed and they had been left home alone.

“Listen Ry,” The floor suddenly seemed very interesting to Shane as he stared down at it, brow furrowed. “I need to tell you the truth about something. Something I should have told you a long time ago.”

“The truth? About what?” Ryan, sensing the somber mood, crossed his arms protectively across his chest as if in a physical attempt to shield himself from whatever Shane might say next.

Shane let out a deep sigh, frustratedly running his hand through his hair. “Look, Ryan...I’m not a demon.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane and Ryan finally talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who is still here and reading this despite my unplanned hiatus. I love you all <3

“Um, what?” Ryan let out a borderline hysterical giggle, looking at Shane like he’d just told the world’s dumbest joke. “What are you then? Some type of wayward spirit? Are you having some kind of demon identity crisis?”

Shane grimaced. “Not exactly… I-”

“So what then? A cryptid of some sort? I always did say you’re probably related to bigfoot somehow.” A self-assured nod of Ryan’s head indicated his apparent acceptance of the idea. 

“The truth is-” 

“Are you some kind of alien?!” Ryan looked almost excited at this idea.

“Well if you would just stop cutting me off-” Shane’s eyebrow twitched with irritation.

“Or are you trying to say you’re human, or something?” Ryan gave a laugh, as if the very idea was ridiculous.

The sudden silence throughout the room spoke volumes. For a moment it seemed neither could make a sound, as if even the slightest whisper would cause irreparable damage. 

The building tension was finally broken by Shane’s soft admission of “yeah.”

A few seconds passed. Then, the questions started.

“Right. What about when you got sick from drinking the holy water?”

“I got food poisoning from some badly prepared steak.” 

“And the bake sale?” Ryan’s arms gesticulated wildly. “I was worried sick that you’d get hurt as soon as you walked inside the church! No wonder it didn’t matter to you. You never had anything to worry about to begin with, did you?!” 

Shane just nodded guiltily, unable to conjure up any sort of defense. Everything Ryan was saying was true.

“And the first time we met! You were a demon! You had horns, and black eyes! What the hell was that, _huh_?!”

Shane sighed deeply. That was a question he could answer. “You know I play D&D with Sara and our friends. We had wanted to try LARPing for once. My character happens to be a tiefling, a race of half-demons. I was wearing styrofoam horns and sclera contacts.”

“B-but-” Ryan stammered, “You broke my camera!”

“It broke on its own. Just a crazy coincidence.” 

Ryan’s glare only seemed to harden as he appeared to come to a realization. “Wait… so you threatened me for shits and giggles? I was scared from my life that night! I thought I was about to be killed, and it would be my fault that my family would never know what happened to me, all because I had the gall to mess with demons! Weren’t you worried by the camera almost catching on fire right after I told you I was trying to summon a demon?” 

Shane looked at him miserably. “I don’t even believe in the supernatural, Ry.” 

Ryan froze, a look of shock plastered across his face. Huffing out a sound of disbelief, Ryan backed off, face going blank as he lowered his gaze to the ground. Shane couldn’t see his eyes anymore. “Oh. So that’s how it is. You’re just some skeptic asshole who thought he’d get his kicks from tricking some stupid believer, right? _What an idiot he must be to think I’m actually a demon_ . That’s what you were thinking, _right?_ ” 

Suddenly, Ryan was right in Shane’s face, jabbing a finger in his chest. “Are you fucking serious right now? You thought, oh let’s take advantage of this guy’s belief in the supernatural for my own sick, twisted amusement.”

“Ryan-” Shane reached out a hand toward the shorter man in a placating manner, but before it could reach him, Ryan jerked out of its reach. 

“No! Fuck you, man! I trusted you, and you took advantage of it!” Ryan grabbed his bag from where he’d placed it earlier, before they’d gone into the hallway, before Shane had monumentally screwed things up. Quickly shoving the camera and his phone into his bag, Ryan spun on his heel towards the exit and stormed off.

Shane didn’t try to follow.

* * *

Ryan uploaded the footage from his investigation in the abandoned dormitory, carefully editing out any and all parts where Shane had spoken. He didn’t want to give the bastard the satisfaction. His fans were overjoyed at his return to YouTube and had welcomed him back with open arms. The comment section was full of people freaking out over the evidence he’d managed to capture in the video, and he was glad to see others were as excited about the strange shadow as he’d been in the moment.

An image flashed in his mind of sharing his own excitement with Shane right after realizing that he’d managed to capture it on film, and he scowled, mood souring as he slammed shut the laptop. _So, what?_ As far as Ryan was concerned, Shane hadn’t ever been his friend to begin with. It had all been an act so that asshole could laugh at Ryan behind his back about how gullible he was. 

Hearing his phone buzz with a notification, Ryan reached out and grabbed it from off the side table it had been resting on, glancing at the lock screen. A text from Sara. Using his thumbprint to unlock the phone, he read over Sara’s message.

**[Sara] 12:32** Hey Ryan, do you know what’s up with Shane lately? I figured since you know him best, you might have a clue as to what’s got him so down the past couple of days. He missed D&D this week without a warning. Worried about the guy.

Ryan scoffed. Know him best? _Yeah right._ He’d only known the guy for about 4 months, and Shane had been lying to him the whole time. He didn’t know a single damn thing about Shane. 

**[Ryan] 12:34** Don’t know. Don’t care.

**[Sara] 12:35** Um… what? 

**[Sara] 12:35** Is something going on between you two?

A few minutes passed where Ryan elected to say nothing, watching as the bubble indicating Sara was typing disappeared and reappeared repeatedly.

**[Sara] 12:39** After you get out of work tomorrow, we’re gonna go grab a coffee together. 

And two seconds later-

**[Sara] 12:39** And no, you can’t make a rain check. You’re gonna come, even if I have to drag you there.

Sighing, Ryan texted back a brief acknowledgement and flopped down backwards, back hitting the carpet. He threw an arm over his eyes. 

Looks like he couldn’t avoid talking about it anymore.

* * *

The next evening, just as he was finishing up his shift at the library, he caught a glimpse of Sara stepping inside. Noticing her eyes scan the room, presumably in search of him, he gave a wave as she looked in his direction. As she spotted him she neglected to give a wave of her own and instead began to make her way towards him, stern-faced.

Once she reached the front desk she stared down at him silently with a contemplating look. 

Well, this wasn’t awkward or anything. 

“You wanted to go grab a coffee, right?” Ryan prompted.

One of Sara’s hands was wrapped tightly around the strap of her purse, and Ryan watched as she moved her other to rest on her hip, pursing her lips.

“Yeah, c’mon.” She turned around, leading them in the direction of the exit, only looking back over her shoulder briefly to address him once more. “We need to talk.”

* * *

“So, I’m guessing you wanted to talk to me about Shane, right?” Ryan was the one to broach the elephant in the room first.

Sara let out a weary exhale, setting her cup of coffee back on the table but leaving her hands wrapped tightly around its cardboard sleeve as if she was trying to draw strength from it.

“Ryan, what happened? Shane’s been acting as if he lost a family member or something. I thought something might have happened to his parents, but now I have a sneaking suspicion you’re a part of this somehow. He’s skipped at least 4 of his classes this week, Ryan; he _never_ does that.”

Ryan narrowed his eyes as he stared down into his own cup, suddenly quiet.

“Ryan?” Sara questioned. “Well, say something!”

“Did you know?” The words were barely a whisper. 

Sara leaned forward in an attempt to make out what he had said. “Sorry can you repeat that?”

“I said, did you know? Were you in on it too? Were you both laughing about this behind my back the whole time?”

“Know what?” Sara shook her head in disbelief. “Ryan you’re not making any sense.”

“That Shane was human this whole time! That he never was a demon to begin with!”

“Um… what?” Sara looked bewildered at this point.

“That asshole tricked me into thinking he was a demon this whole time! Apparently you, Shane, and the rest of your roleplaying group were all dressed up as your characters which meant that he was dressed up as some half-demon, and I since I was out trying to summon a demon-”

“You were trying to _what_?”

“-when he wandered out of the woods I thought I’d actually succeeded and freaked out! That bastard noticed I believe in demons even though he doesn’t and decided it would be some fun game to threaten me and trick me into thinking he was the real deal!”

Sara just watched, wide-eyed, as Ryan continued his story.

“I thought he was a demon, and I was terrified! But somehow, at the same time, I ended up becoming friends with him, despite everything I thought he was. Learning that our whole friendship was built on lies hurt, Sara.”

There was a pause as they both went quiet. The only sounds were Ryan’s exhales, out of breath from his long-winded speech. 

Fiddling with the coffee cup, Sara used one of her nails to pick at the edges of the sleeve, fraying the seam where the cardboard wrapped around and overlapped.

“Did you ever actually ask Shane if he was a demon?”

The words gave Ryan pause. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t quite sure Shane ever had said, word for word, “I’m a demon.” He’d only followed Ryan’s lead. Still though, he’d implied it countless times and never had chosen to correct Ryan whenever it was brought up. He’d still been lying, even if it wasn’t as blatantly outright. A lie by omission was still a lie.

Sara watched him for a reaction before continuing. “No matter what you think, one thing’s for sure. Even if Shane misled you about him being a demon, he never once lied about caring about you. You’re his best friend, Ryan. Give him a chance. Let him have the opportunity to tell his side of the story. If you don’t like his answer, then feel free to never talk to him again. But don’t go babbling on about what a horrible person Shane is when you haven’t let him explain a damn thing.” Sara got up, throwing her bag over her shoulder before tossing out her empty cup and making her exit in a few brisk motions.

Ryan sighed, dropping his head onto his arms, lying crossed on the table. Turning his head to the side so he could watch the other students milling about in the coffee shop, he forced himself to face his options.

He could continue on he had been the past week, ignoring Shane and pretending he didn’t exist until the past fews months started to feel like nothing but a bad dream or he could-

A glimpse of him and Shane watching Friday the 13th and eating popcorn together on Shane’s couch flashed before his eyes. 

Maybe he could give Shane a chance to explain. Maybe he did have something to say.

* * *

Standing outside one of one of Shane’s many history classes, Ryan leaned up against the wall, awkwardly waiting for the professor to wrap up class. A glance at his watch confirmed that, yes, the class should have ended 5 minutes ago, but instead the lesson was still going on. He shifted uncomfortably. Each minute he had to wait made Ryan less and less certain in his choice to be here at all. He battled with the urge to just go home and continue his avoidance, but a tiny voice that sounded suspiciously like Sara whispered quietly in his ear, telling him he couldn’t leave yet. He couldn’t leave until he confronted this and got some form of closure.

Caught up in his train of thought, he failed to notice the first few students trickling out of the classroom. Distracted, he was surprised when a tall figure came to a stop in front of him.

“Ryan?” Shane’s eyes were wide. He clearly hadn’t been expecting to see Ryan waiting for him outside his class. Which, to be fair, Ryan supposed was completely rational, even if it spurred a sudden pang of sadness in his chest. It hurt to think about how quickly their entire friendship had fallen apart.

“What are you doing here? Doesn’t the film club meet about now? You’re gonna be late-”

“Listen.” Ryan held up a hand, cutting Shane off with a wave, briefly allowing himself to revel a small bit in vindictive pleasure at the hurt look on Shane’s face. “Frankly, I don’t want to be here right now. I think you’re an asshole who lied to me from the get-go, and I couldn’t be bothered to waste any more time talking to you but Sara says I should hear you out so-” Ryan threw his bag at the foot of one of the empty chairs before dropping himself down into it. He crossed his arms. “You get one chance, spill.”

For a second, Ryan almost felt bad as he watched the relief, and what looked like the smallest glimmer of hope, melt across Shane’s features. He shut that part of his brain down quickly, shaking his head angrily at himself. Internally, he cursed Shane for how easily it was to forget he was mad at him.

Timidly, as if afraid to move too quickly in case it provoked Ryan to bolt, Shane also placed his backpack down next to one of the hallway’s empty chairs and sat a few seats down from Ryan.

“I admit, when I realized that you actually believed you’d summoned me from Hell, I thought it’d be funny to play into it. I may not have ever outright agreed with you, but I didn’t stop you from coming to that conclusion, or even correct you when you did. To be honest, I didn’t expect for us to ever cross paths again anyways so I just thought it was a harmless prank on some guy who’d tell his friends about it the next day and forget all about it within the week. I don’t believe in all this supernatural bullshit so I hadn’t realized that it might not be as funny to someone who does, but that’s no excuse. I’m a bit of an asshole, yeah, but that’s just me. I mean, you’ve known me for a few months now; most people can tell I’m a jerk within the first 15 minutes of meeting me.”

Ryan snorted at that, and the corner of Shane’s mouth ticked up slightly.

“I know you don’t want to talk to me or see my face ever again, but you really are my best friend, Ry. I never faked any of that. I really do love horror movies, popcorn, and Jeff Goldblum.” A tentative smile.

There was a pause as Shane finished speaking before Ryan took a deep breath.

“You know… you might just be the worst asshole I’ve ever known,” Shane winced at Ryan’s harsh words, “but you’re right.”

Shane threw him a quizzical glance. “Huh?”

Ryan smirked. “I knew that with the first 15 minutes of talking to you.”

Shane threw his head back with the force of his laughter.

For a moment, Ryan’s expression briefly sobered once again. “I’m not saying we’re back to where we were. I’m still super upset and it’s gonna take me awhile to get over all this. Not to mention, I might hold it over you for years to come. Even so, I think it’d be nice if we start over, you know? On equal footing this time, as humans.” The shorter man glared pointedly.

With another, much more subdued laugh, Shane nodded before getting up and walking over to stand in front of Ryan.

“So, want to try this again?”

Ryan laughed, nodding his head and rising to his feet to extend his hand. “I’m Ryan Bergara, film student and wannabe ghost hunter.”

Shane grasped his hand, shaking it. “Nice to meet you, Ryan Bergara. I’m Shane Madej, tired history major and tiefling in my ongoing D&D campaign.” He smiled.

“Nice to meet you, Shane.”

For the first time since their fight Ryan found himself thinking _maybe, just maybe, everything will be okay._

* * *

As they walked outside in the direction of one of Shane’s next classes, Ryan couldn’t help but grin. “I still think you could be a demon though. Maybe you just don’t know it yet. No human has freakishly long, 8-foot limbs like you do.”

Shane just laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s a wrap! Thank you so much to anyone who stuck around while I took forever to write each part of this mini series. To be honest, I’m just proud I managed to finish this series and to do it in a way that felt satisfying to me.
> 
> Feel free to come over to Tumblr and shoot me an ask or have a chat about anything ghoul or non-ghoul related. You can find me [here!](https://solstudio.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Also feel free to check out my other stories while you’re here! (Yes, this is my shameless self-promotion.) I have another BFU fic about demon!Shane and Ricky Goldsworth becoming unlikely allies if you’re interested in that, as well as a fic for Detroit: Become Human, and I have some future stuff in the works for Attack on Titan.
> 
> If any of those seem interesting to you, feel free to stick around :)
> 
> Thank you again, and I hope you all have a lovely day!

**Author's Note:**

> The final part of the series should be out in the next few weeks ;)
> 
> Thanks for reading! Find me on tumblr [here!](https://solstudio.tumblr.com/)


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